Covert Affairs' Nic Bishop on Ryan's Pursuit of Annie: 'He's Good for Her'

There’s a new man in Annie Walker’s life on Covert Affairs, but is private contractor Ryan McQuaid interested in her brains or her heart?

“He’s very intrigued by her” as an operative and a woman, actor Nic Bishop tells TVLine. So what’s a private spy to do when someone catches his eye, professionally and romantically? “He’s going to try and acquire as much information about someone like her as quickly as he possibly can.”

Although Annie didn’t seem to return the interest in the season opener, Bishop insists that McQuaid is “really good” for the CIA agent and hopes to win over the Annie/Auggie ‘shippers.

Meanwhile, this Tuesday’s episode (USA Network, 10/9c) will find the two working together for a common cause. But this is a show about covert ops, so the new guy is holding onto some secrets, Bishop tells TVLine below.

TVLINE | In the season premiere, we see that Ryan has designs on Annie. How do you think the Auggie/Annie fans are feeling about your character?
[Laughs] I think I’ve got a bit of an uphill climb in front of me. Auggie is a much loved character. I can absolutely see why. Chris [Gorham] is great in that role, and he’s been a fan favorite for a long time. With any show that’s been going for a while, they need to reinvent the energy and keep thinking of ways to challenge the characters and challenge the audience. So that’s what this is going to do. The introduction of my character is certainly going to challenge the audience. I just hope they get onboard because McQuaid is a great character. He’s a character with a lot of integrity, and he’s really good for her in a lot of ways.

TVLINE | What does he see in Annie that he likes?
He sees a lot of himself. He sees a lot of the kind of person he tries to function as, someone who is very committed to the greater goal, which is catching the bad guys, basically. He sees that she’ll stop at nothing to get there and she’s very driven and focused. She is very morally sound. He sees that she’s a really good woman and she’s doing all this for the right reasons. Even though he’s a billionaire [and] he’s got all these expensive toys, that all came from him doing what she does.

TVLINE | She doesn’t seem that interested in him in the premiere. How is that relationship going to evolve?
There’s some pushing and shoving with regards to that for a while. He’s quite forward, and he has a twinkle in his eye. He likes to push people’s buttons. That’s just the way that he operates and the way that he’s always operated. She’s a bit alarmed or cautious of that immediately. But we’ll just have to see.

TVLINE | How relentlessly is he going to pursue her? He comes on pretty hard in the premiere.
It’s really more about the work, to be honest. It’s really more about the cases and tracking down the bad guy, working as a team. The fight is really about him trying to get her to be a team player with him. That’s really what the challenge is, initially, more than trying to romance her.

TVLINE | What can we expect in this Tuesday’s episode?
We end up together, pursuing a terrorist who is hiding out in Venezuela. So we have all kinds of crazy adventures, trying to work together and reach that common goal, but with different ways of going about it. That’s a really interesting journey for the both of us, and it’s the start of our working relationship.

TVLINE | If he works with the CIA as a private contractor, does that mean, at some point, we might see Ryan and Auggie interact?
I thought about that, and it’s a really interesting point. In the first couple of episodes, they have nothing to do with each other. I don’t know. I think at some point we will. But up until now, that certainly hasn’t been the case.

TVLINE | In this world, there tends to be a lot of secrets. Should we expect McQuaid to be unleashing some of his own?
Yeah. Anyone who works in this kind of field, absolutely, they have many secrets. He doesn’t work for the CIA. He’s a private contractor, so therefore, he’s got a whole bunch of other cases and contracts that he can’t talk about to anybody else in the show, including Annie. So he has to keep some of those things very close to his chest because the consequences of him letting that information out are either he’ll lose these multi, multimillion dollar contracts or he could potentially go to prison.

Covert Affairs fans, how are you feeling about Ryan McQuaid? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.

Lol didnt even read this…nothing against TVLine but so tired of this showing being the bachelorette….”its a new season, there are now 3 different guys that Annie is gonna fall for! and 2 other guys from the past she is gonna hook up with!” ….this show was great when it was Annie a new spy…with a great friendship and chemistry with Auggie..and when the Israeli showed up it was cool she had chemistry with another guy and all that…but all the guys since? Just feels like Annie is banging her way through the spy world. You didnt have this on Burn Notice, which is the way i prefer it.
–
Idk if this show has a high female audience so they write Annie to have these chemistry filled hot romances with handsome spies to satisfy that female fantasy (in the same way Bond does to satisfy the male fantasy)…but i dislike it in Bond and in Covert Affairs. Less romances and hook ups and stuff on my SPY show…more awesome plots and spy adventures and just let her and Auggie slow simmer for a season or two then get them back together once and for all. By the time the writers are done having her bang her way around the world, and shes back to realizing Auggie is the guy for her, hes not gonna want her, been as used as a garage sale doormat.

Ugh, Simon and his Wookie level body hair just didn’t have any weight, he seemed more like an extra than a real actor. I’m not feeling Annie with this way older dude either, the fact that he’s so mixed up in whatever bad stuff is going down implies that new guy is the next Big Bad, much like that sweaty gross rogue spy she hooked up with a few seasons ago. You’re right that it’s hard to buy these relationships because the producers never invested in The One early on, so rather than a heart stopping Michael Vaughn instead we have a string of hookups that never last.

Agreed!!! She doesn’t have that romantic chemistry with Auggie. They were thrown together because that’s what the fans wanted. Her and Simon were great, her and Eyal were great. Wouldn’t mind her ending up with Eyal. I love mcquaid!!! He can stick around, they are an awesome match!

Why is Annie now a helpless fragile damsel in distress who needs this guy to rescue every five minutes, plus a heart condition? Annie was so tough and cool last season and now she’s fainting into this dude’s arms and he’s driving her around instead of her being in the driver’s seat. I hope Annie gets her huevos back, and soon.

I love spy shows including this show, but I’m tired of the man hopping on this show. Stop having Annie sleep her way around the spy world and eventually put her back with Auggie. They love and understand each other and are meant for each other. You can have a great spy show with your main character having ONE love interest and without that love interest/aspect overtaking the spy aspect.

the new guy was prolly payed before henry depth by henry to hunt annie down and kill her for killing him being henry. but now that he’s found her seen how beautiful she is he put it on hold and bring author in to his company so annie will trust him auggie will save them both cause he will find out this guy past and come in with colter and june and take this cuy down he prolly in cahoots with with the guy ainnie looking for now

Love the new “guy”. He is more an equal to Annie. I liked Annie with Auggie, but I see them more as “friends” than anything. For any show to survive they need to develop and move the storyline, not rehash old ones. I like the storyline for this season. Both Annie and McQuaid will share many “secrets” between them as they discover old secrets of their own. I found it interesting in episode 1 when Auggie asked Annie if there was anything else she wanted to tell him about her 4 months absence……………….she said no………………………………..That was HUGE as a telling statement of how she had moved on keeping her private and professional life separate.

Oh it’s pretty obvious he’s going to end up being the bad guy, bank rolling the attacks on CIA outposts to prove that the current level of defence isn’t high enough and he and his firm can do it better, and make a lot more money at the same time, It’s why he needed that hour with the bomber, to make sure he would say nothing, and why he was so overly inquisitive as to how Annie got him to talk, He goes on and on about patriotism and loving his country and I don’t doubt he does but there isn’t a single episode where he hasn’t driven home the I’m a patriot, I’ll do ANYTHING for my country’ line, which just means he’s going to end up justifying the deaths of 12 operatives as casualties of war against whomever he thinks is the biggest threat. It’s hardly an original idea, and it’s been done better before.

Oh and to all those people who are saying Annie is sleeping around, I don’t know what you consider that to be, but 1 lover a year is hardly prostitution.

Love seeing McQuaid and Annie together. He’s a man, Auggie seems like a grad student next to him and Annie needs a man! Great on screen chemistry. Can’t wait to see the romance. Maybe they can have little spy babies:)

So far I like him…..but think he has secrets that will shock us later on. I do however like the idea of McQuaid and Annie. Maybe not in a relationship but hooking up every now and then and working together. I think they will make a good team…and work well together. It will probably, most definitely be interesting to see what happens when Aggie and McQuaid meet…and how theywill be introduced to each other. I think this will be an awesome season with tons of twists aand turns that will shock us all…but I guess we’ll have to wait and see…….
!!PEACE!!

Talk about banging your way thru the show….that’s what Auggie is doing not Annie. The Auggie character is a boy and obviously goes where the wind blows – very boring and one dimensional. I love that they brought a man into the show with McQuaid. He’s solid. I love him and Annie together. If she can’t have McQuaid, they should have developed the Mossad guy. Never liked Annie and Auggie together – they are better off friends. He’s not strong enough for her.

I think Ryan is good for annie and he will be great :-) it’s getting more interesting with him in it this season, can’t wait to see where him and annie lead.. I don’t think auggie and annie are anything more than friends now we have been there and it didn’t work out, plus he slept with Helen!!
I think it’s time for someone new

I like him and Annie together, but not sure how it will pay. I also like the others on this show, especially Augie who should be operated on and gotten his sight back. They are friends with benefits…and a great storyline. Annie is my favorite…